The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a new rule governing telemarketing calls that feature prerecorded messages. Beginning Sept. 1, 2009, telemarketing companies must obtain call recipientsí written permission before contacting them with a prerecorded message. More immediately, effective Dec. 1, 2008, prerecorded telephone marketing calls must have an opt-out mechanism so that recipients can elect not to receive those unsolicited calls in the future.

Telemarketers with pre-existing customer relationships will be allowed to continue using prerecorded messages to contact those customers only for one year after the rule is published in the Federal Register. At that time, telemarketing companies will need their customerís written permission before calling anyone with a prerecorded message.

Under the new regulations, charitable organizations can continue contacting their members or previous donors, but will need to offer an opt-out mechanism once the new rule goes into effect.

The FTCís new rule will not prohibit customers from receiving certain prerecorded informational calls, such as those which announce flight delay notifications, upcoming appointments, or similarly helpful information. These phone calls are unaffected by the new rule because they are not used to market products or services to the recipient. Healthcare-related phone calls also are exempt from the new regulations.

Under the new rule, the prerecorded telemarketing calls must:

allow the telephone to ring for at least 15 seconds or four rings before an unanswered call is disconnected;

begin the prerecorded message within two seconds of a completed greeting by the recipient;

disclose at the outset of the call that the recipient may ask to be placed on the company's do-not-call list at any time during the message;

in cases where the call is answered by a person, make an automated interactive voice and/or keypress-activated opt-out mechanism available during the message that adds the recipientís telephone number to the company's do-not-call list and then immediately ends the call; and

in cases where the call is answered by an answering machine or voicemail, provide a toll-free number that allows the recipient to be connected to an automated interactive voice and/or keypress-activated opt-out mechanism anytime after the message is received.

ABOUT CONSUMER ALERTS - The Office of the Attorney General accepts consumer complaints about businesses. When a pattern of complaints warrants intervention, the Attorney General can file a civil lawsuit under consumer protection statutes, sometimes with the result that a company is required to pay restitution to consumers -- see our Major Lawsuits page. However, when a consumer is swindled by a con artist, filing a complaint cannot help. Civil litigation can sometimes put a very unscrupulous business out of action, but often cannot produce restitution.

Individual con artists generally fall under the jurisdiction of a criminal prosecutor -- in Texas, this is the district or county attorney. But even when they are charged and convicted, these individuals usually have spent the money as fast as they have stolen it. A person who is the victim of fraud should report the incident to the police or sheriff. But by far the best thing is for consumers to be aware of fraud, so they are not swindled in the first place. For this reason, the Office of the Attorney General posts these Consumer Alerts about possible scams and schemes that come to our attention through citizen contacts to our office or other sources.